"Paper Moon" was Ohashi's 2nd single and was released in May 1976 at the same time that her 2nd album of the same name was released. The song has that freewheeling urban disco feeling which definitely puts it in the City Pop genre, and again those aforementioned guitars drive the beat. Shigeru Suzuki（鈴木茂） was the lead guitarist here, and he wasn't the only Happy End member to help Ohashi out. Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）was also on board as the lyricist while Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）composed the song.
The album "Paper Moon" overall attracted quite a few future heavyweights in terms of songwriting. For instance, 1981 Album-of-the-Year winner Akira Terao（寺尾聡） wrote one song along with Mickey Yoshino（ミッキー吉野） of Godiego（ゴダイゴ） fame also helping out in the writing and instruments on a few of the other tracks. Would love to check it out someday but until then, there is always YouTube.
junko ohashi, i simply love this vocalist, epscially the songs on paper moon ive heard , there's one that starts off with piano really slow and melancholic and proceeds into a powerful chorsu and a great solo, since discovering my love for Japanese music and vocalists a few years back, and even more recently for female vocalists of ages gone by, ive heard lots of very good vocalsits, but i always treasture taht moment wheni find somoene who really just gets me, hits all the right buttons and i know straight off that i will always listen to that artist, this has been my most recent of such finds, iw would only put a small few in that catergorie, those whose voices are so good that you cant go too long without listening to them, i would put akina nakamori, rie nakahara, mariko tone, keiko terada and a few others into that bracket, thanks for the upload, wish i could find this album as a download! oh well, this blog is smply amazing
ReplyDeleteHi, Laurence.
ReplyDeleteI think I have the same reaction you do when it comes to a revelation in a singer that I've just come across. And Junko Ohashi is no different. I knew her for years for singing songs like "Silhouette Romance" and "Tasogare My Love" which are very pleasant tunes, but I only discovered her earlier more soulful and urban stuff just in the last few years.
Not sure if you've ever been to Japan, but if you do, you have to hit the major CD shops such as Tower Records in Tokyo. Junko Ohashi is one of the older singers who has recently gotten a lot of her original albums remastered.
Thanks very much for the compliments, by the way. :)